Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 2396

Chapter 2396: Didn’t Care

Sylas didn’t move.

One might have assumed that Ekear’s words had caught against his Pride, or that Sylas had finally begun wondering why Gralith’s eldest disciple was so much stronger than he had any right to be. Neither thought had occupied him for more than an instant, and he cared even less about the implication that Ekear might have been able to claim one of the five Wills whenever he pleased.

Honestly speaking, Sylas had a very, very difficult time caring about the opinions of almost the entirety of existence. There were only a handful of people whose thoughts genuinely mattered to him, and even with them, there were plenty of times he only listened because doing so made them happy, not due to some sudden belief that his own deductions had become invalid. Whatever opinion Ekear had of himself, inflated or otherwise, held almost no value to Sylas at all.

There was another reason he hadn’t moved.

Where had Ekear come from?

Sylas’ eyes slowly lifted toward the skies as the Heavenly Serpentes continued closing around them. He had been paying too much attention to the flow of Will around the Beast Emperor Sanctum for Ekear to simply arrive without being sensed long before he reached this battlefield, and if he had entered through the Sanctum itself, he should have appeared alongside Fanelei and the others. More importantly, he should have been frozen with the rest of the Spirit Beast Race Emperors under whatever influence had commandeered their Wills.

"Why aren’t you moving?" Ekear’s voice carried over the growing resonance of Serion and Thiel’s formation, irritation beginning to replace the lazy edge he usually carried. "I’m giving you the opening you need, youngest disciple brother. Take it."

Sylas continued looking upward, but that only irritated Ekear further.

He had made a genuine effort to get along with Sylas despite how difficult the man made it, yet there always seemed to be something in the way. Sylas wouldn’t even call Gralith Master as he should, and Ekear found that particularly grating considering he knew very well what his own origins could have allowed him to become.

"I don’t understand you," Ekear said, one of his seven blades rotating behind him as he redirected another Heavenly Serpent. "Even I give Master the respect he’s owed. Do you really think you’re the highest Heaven there is? Do you really believe there’s no one more competent than you? Now I’m standing here returning what I owe you, and you’re wasting it being a petty bastard."

Sylas heard him. He simply wasn’t interested responding.

Ekear’s origins were clearly far greater than they appeared, and Sylas could even guess that there had been more behind his absence when Gralith was trapped by the main Sanctum than he had understood at the time. Maybe Ekear had been holding himself back for reasons tied to his Clan, or maybe there were consequences he couldn’t afford to trigger without exhausting every other option first.

None of that changed anything for Sylas.

There were certain things that, if one truly cared enough about them, consequences stopped mattering. Maybe Ekear had already decided that if Gralith’s life genuinely reached the final line, he would throw everything away and save him, and Sylas had no particular reason to doubt that this was true.

The problem was what happened before that line.

If Sylas had died while saving Gralith, perhaps Ekear would have been furious, and perhaps he would have hunted down everyone responsible until there was no one left to kill. But that rage wouldn’t have done anything for Sylas’ parents, his wife, Elara, or Earth, and the people Sylas cared about would have been left to deal with the consequences of his death all the same.

Morality had never been black and white.

Ekear clearly loved Gralith, and Sylas doubted his feelings toward Gwenu and Khan were much weaker, but he barely knew Sylas. Expecting him to have thrown away everything for someone he hardly knew would have been ridiculous, even if he happened to be the greatest saint alive.

That went both ways.

For Ekear to now act as though Sylas owed all of them the same affection, respect, and attachment simply by virtue of being Gralith’s disciple was almost amusing. Sylas hadn’t saved Gralith for Ekear, and he had never considered that act a debt someone else needed to repay on his Master’s behalf.

He had saved Gralith because Gralith deserved to be saved. Whatever irritation Ekear felt now had nothing to do with him.

What did have something to do with Sylas was the fact someone had somehow placed Ekear here at exactly the right moment to throw another wrench into his plans.

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